Ithaca Police officers were busy late Saturday night and early Sunday morning responding to several criminal calls, including two fires later determined to be arson.

It began Saturday night around 10:15 p.m. with a car fire in the parking lot next to GIAC's Alex Haley Municipal Swimming Pool, in the 400 block of North Albany Street. Officers arrived to find a 1995 Chevy sedan fully engulfed in flames. The car was destroyed by the fire.

A half-hour later, at 10:45 p.m., officers were called again to assist the Ithaca Fire Department at a vehicle fire, this time on the parallel block of the 400 block of North Geneva Street. Upon arrival, officers found the interior of a 1992 GMC Sierra pickup truck on fire.

Ithaca Police Department and Ithaca Fire Department arson investigators along with the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control are investigating both fires, both of which have been ruled arson.

At 11 p.m. Saturday night, police were called to respond to a residential burglary in the 400 block of North Cayuga Street. Officers interviewed the victim, who reported he heard someone enter his apartment. The victim reported that as he checked on the noise, he interrupted the perpetrator, who was attempting to steal multiple items from his home. The perpetrator reportedly threw a bottle at the victim and fled.

At 11:32 p.m., police were called to investigate a man passed out in someone's vehicle parked in the 100 block of Sears Street. Officers checked the welfare of the man, who was identified as Ezra N. Broadwell, 20, and recognized that he fit the description of the person reported to have burglarized the home on the 400 block of North Cayuga Street about a half-hour earlier. The victim of the burglary positively identified Broadwell as the person who burglarized his home, according to police.

Broadwell was arrested and charged with second-degree burglary, a class C felony, and is currently being held in the Tompkins County jail.

Early Sunday morning at 2:29 a.m., police responded to a burglar alarm activation at the Warehouse Carpet Outlet at 170 Cecil A. Malone Drive. Officers found a smashed window beside one of the entrance doors but no evidence that anyone had gone inside. Almost exactly 24 hours earlier, the same business had been burglarized through a window and door, and an undisclosed amount of money and property were stolen.

At 2:42 a.m. Sunday morning, officers responded to a burglary in the 900 block of Taber Street. Police found damage to a number of other businesses in the 900 block, including one glass door smashed. An undisclosed amount of money and property was stolen from multiple businesses. Investigation into the matter is ongoing.

At 2:50 a.m., while investigating the burglaries on Taber Street, officers heard an alarm in the area. Police found that Ithaca Grain and Pet Supply at 1011 W. Seneca St. had been broken into; a window was smashed and there was evidence that the perpetrator had rifled through the business.

The suspect in the burglaries in the area of Cecil A. Malone, Taber Street and West Seneca Street is described as a black man with an athletic build, wearing a light-colored cardigan-style sweater, jeans with white stitching on the back and black sneakers and occasionally using a plaid or flannel shirt to cover his face.

Anyone with information about the crimes is encouraged to contact the Ithaca Police Department Investigations Division at (607) 272-3245 or Crime Stoppers Tipline (607) 697-0333.